Manuel Antonio is one of the most beautiful places I have ever been in my life. It’s teeming with animals in their natural habitat, beautiful sunsets, relaxing beaches, and a number of fun adventures for people traveling to this tropical paradise.
Getting there was fairly simple. Once I was in San Jose, I just had to take a direct bus from the Tracopa bus terminal to Quepo for 4,775 colones, or roughly $8.22 USD – aka cheap AF. At the bus station, this red-haired guy with a beard and a backpacker’s pack was standing in front of me in line to board the bus. He turned around and asked, “Perdon, es….este el bus….para Manuel Antonio?” in broken Spanish. I laughed and said, “Yes, this is the bus to Quepos. Well, at least that’s what the guy at the ticket office said to me.” To which he replied,” Oh thank god! You speak English.”
We ended up sitting together on the 3 hour bus ride from San Jose to Quepos, which is the town right next to Manuel Antonio. Joe turned out to be a really cool guy and was going exactly where I was heading – Selina Hostel in Manuel Antonio.
Once we landed in Quepos, we ended up going to a smoothie bar and ran into someone Joe knew from a hostel in Nicaragua. Chase was backpacking alone as well, and was just coming back from an Ayahuasca retreat. He just so happened to be in Quepos on his way back to San Jose, figuring out where he was going when he walked by the smoothie bar. For the next hour or so, we all hung out talking and Chase was talking about his Ayahuasca journey. For more details, link here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ayahuasca. Chase decided to come with us to Manuel Antonio, so we caught the bus from Quepos to our hostel.
Selina Hostel was by far the best hostel I’ve ever stayed in. It was gorgeous with every amenity you could ever want: full bar, pool, restaurant, pool table, activity hub, games, work space, yoga studio, and enough room for at least 150-200 people. It had cabin style dorms and private rooms, complete with iguanas and birds roaming the property at all hours of the day and night. There were also wild macaws flying around near the property. It was awesome.
After we checked in (with a free upgrade, for the win!), Joe and I headed off to our dorm. Go figure, we randomly met at the bus station in San Jose and ended up being roomies for a few days. We also met this French guy right away in the lobby. Basile was traveling alone as well, had just graduated from university, and was traveling around Central America before starting his full-time job back in France.
After we all dropped our stuff off, the four of us (Joe, Chase, Basile, and I) met up at the pool/rec area to play some pool with some beers, and then we all ended up going on this free excursion to go cliff jumping at sunset. However, you had to have a running head start to clear the 7-10 feet of rock jutting out at the base of the 25 foot cliff, and time your jump with the waves since it was low tide. Knowing my luck and that I didn’t want to be wet the rest of the evening, I decided not to jump. Afterwards, we went back to the hostel to meet more folks with some more drinks.
The next day, we all went to the national park: hiking, nature, animals, beaches, sun, swimming, relaxing. It was everything I wanted Manuel Antonio National Park to be. We started off pretty early in the morning, around 8am. We got into the park for $16 USD (around 9,000 colones for visitors, 1,600 colones for Ticos), and started exploring. There are several trails, and we decided to go to the furthest one and then backtrack towards the entrance throughout the day.
We saw a ton of animals: snakes, monkeys, birds, lizards, raccoons, butterflies, sloths, deer, crabs, fish, and a whole army of insects. It was teeming with life and seriously felt like a zoo, but all the animals were completely wild and native to the park. It was unbelievable.
The beaches were also great. The water was a beautiful turquoise, but visibility was low with Joe’s scuba mask because of the tides churning up the fine sand. Regardless, we had a few refreshing swims in between trail blazing. Around 1pm, Chase and Basile left the park to go grab food (there were no shops, carts, or restaurants in the park) and Joe and I stayed at one of the main beaches since we brought some food into the park. We hung out on the sand, watching the raccoons and monkeys grab stuff out of other people’s bags and run away. Overall, it was a good time.
Once we got back to the hostel (around 4pm), we relaxed some more by the pool, cooling off from the day’s adventures. Then Joe and I decided to grab some pizza down the street, and met up with Chase and Basile at El Avion across the street from our hostel. This restaurant and bar was really cool, with an actual airplane being the focal point of the entire place, it’s wings spanning the entire width of the open-air restaurant.
At El Avion, we met this guy from Canada named Peter. As we were watching the sunset, Peter was drinking some beer and whipped out his drone. Before we knew it, we were all flying his $2,000 gadget, getting amazing photos and videos of the Costa Rican sunset, and totally bro-ing out with this awesome toy. I definitely want one now, but have to find a loose $2,000 to blow in one purchase. I think I’ll wait a while…
An hour or so later, we were back at the hostel, drinks and pool sticks in hand, meeting more people, and enjoying our time at the hostel. I got to chatting with another guy named Mate, who was also Hungarian and just so happened to be living in Barcelona (my eventual end destination). He was super friendly and even offered to help me on my quest for an apartment in Barcelona, which is apparently more difficult than the online forums have been making it out to be. I’m glad that I have someone on the inside who can help a guy out.
Eventually people started heading to bed, but for our group, one drink led to another, and in no time at all, Chase, Peter, and I had taxied to Quepos, and were at the casino. We might not have gotten lucky on the slots, but we had one hell of an adventure getting there and back. For full details, ask me in person. The whole chronology of events would take too long to type out, and I’m not trying to be a novelist just yet.
By 10am the next morning, Chase, Basile, Joe, and I found ourselves by the pool, taking in the sun, more drinks in hand (don’t judge me mom), and legitimately starting a pool party. Most of the people we had met in the past couple days came out to the party, and we all decided to go do the zipline roller coaster later that afternoon. Around 2:30pm, we walked down to the place, strapped in one by one, and did the d*mn thing. I love ziplining and I love roller coasters, but I’m obsessed with zipline roller coasters.
After the zipline, we went back to the hostel and relaxed some more. Eventually, everyone wanted to head to El Avion to watch the sunset with another drink and some much-needed food. Since I’d been to El Avion before, I decided to go watch the sunset down by the beach. There were no other takers, so I headed down to the beach solo, walking the 20 minutes or so down the hill. I grabbed some food at a supermarket near the national park entrance (and not gonna lie, another beer…seriously mom, don’t judge me) and enjoyed the sunset on the beach. It was incredibly peaceful and I thoroughly enjoyed saying goodnight to the sun, and good morning to the moon.
Once I got back to the hostel an hour or so later, I laid down on my bed to charge my phone, enjoying the air conditioning after a great day in the sun. It was the perfect temperature, the bed was hugging me, and I just closed my eyes for a second. Three hours later, I woke up. Oops. I was just about to go back up to the bar area when Joe walked in, turning in for the night, saying that most people were heading to bed as well.
The next day, I woke up before everyone else since I had fallen asleep so early the night before. I grabbed breakfast (the typical gallo pinto, eggs, and fruit with a beautiful cup of coffee), packed my stuff, and checked out of the hostel. I ran into Mate in the lobby, who was also heading back to San Jose that day. I ended up traveling back with Basile and Mate, stopping in Quepos for another smoothie and some light shopping before taking the bus back to San Jose. Once we got to the Tracopa bus station, we ubered to their hostel to avoid the rain, and then I headed back home to San Roque de Barva.
Overall, it was a truly amazing trip with everything I wanted Manuel Antonio to be: adventurous, relaxing, filled with nature, and just simply – fun. Manuel Antonio, you’re a good time.
